mkstr

NAME

SYNOPSIS

The
mkstr
command is used to create files of error
messages that can be removed from a single C source file, or from multiple
source files.

OPTIONS

Causes messages to be appended to the specified message file,
instead of creating a new file.

DESCRIPTION

The use
of
mkstr
can reduce the size of programs that contain many
error diagnostics and reduce system overhead in running such programs.

The
mkstr
command processes each of the specified
files, placing an altered version of the input file in a file whose name consists
of the specified prefix and the original name.

To process the error messages in the source to the message file,
mkstr
keys on the string
'error('
in the input
stream. Each time it occurs, the C string starting at the
''
is placed in the message file and is followed by a null character and a newline
character. The null character terminates the message so it can be easily
used when retrieved; the newline character makes it possible to catalog the
error message file neatly to see its contents.

The altered copy of the input file then contains a
lseek()
pointer into the file that can be used to retrieve the message to its appropriate
source file, as shown in the following example of a program that
mkstr
produces.

EXAMPLES

To put the error messages from the current directory C source
files into a file called
pi_strings, and to put processed
copies of the source for these files into filenames prefixed by
xx, enter:
mkstr pi_strings xx *.c
To append the error messages from an additional source file
to
pi_strings, enter:
mkstr - pi_strings xx newfile.c